When I format to ext4 using gparted the operation never completes, I have to break the operation and get a warning that I am seriuusly damaging the file system. If I then try to format to FAT 32 it gives an error message. However, when I inplug the card and reinser it, then format to FAT 32 it does it it within a minute or so.

Are there any known problems with formating SD cards of this size on Ubuntu? Is there anyway I can get it to format to ext4? Or does it just take forever and I need to be patient and let the operation run (it's been at least ten minutes so far and doesn't appear to be doing anything)?

Edit:

This is what I am trying to do with the SD - is it essential to use ext4 for such an operation or would Fat32 work?

The system just sits at this point and doesn't do anything. If I remove the SD card the chromebook reboots.

EDIT:

I tried again, this time a different result (sort of) - when I checked the Chrome OS file system this time the device was not mounted like last time. However I got the same error that I get from gparted:

1 Answer
1

Had problems with gparted running from the OS (ie not started from a "live" boot disk). Assuming you want to assign the whole drive to one ext4 partition.

Note: assuming to make a whole disk ext4 will destroy any existing data on that drive!

Try the manual method, do

lsblk

to visually determine where you USB drive is, ie the letter X in /dev/sdX, and the partition(s), if any, N in /dev/sdXN. Eg. /dev/sdc, /dev/sdc1, ... Replace X where relevant.

If necessary, umount whatever is mounted on that drive

sudo umount /dev/sdXN

Then, optional, make the formatting tools "believe" the drive is blank by writing zeroes to the beginning of the flash memory (here 100 MB), to start from clean grounds. Since writing directly to the device bypasses higher level mechanisms, a sync ensures data is actually written (not only in buffers))

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX bs=1M count=100
sudo sync

Unplug and, after a few seconds, re-plug the drive. lsblk will show a blank disk.

Either Make a ext4 disk

If you want to assign the whole USB drive to one ext4 partition, you could simply overwrite the whole, including partition table

Command:

sudo mkfs.ext4 -L "J Connor" /dev/sdX

and that's it. (unplug / replug)

Or Create a partition set to ext4

Or you can create one partition first, maybe smaller than 128 GB (from a "blank" disk)

Using fdisk

sudo fdisk /dev/sdX

Commands (h for help): ensure no partition

p

then create a partition (n), primary (p), part #1 (1), and whole size (default for first and last sectors (or set smaller size, ie lower last sector number))

n
p
1
(return for first sector default)
(return for last sector default or set smaller size)